'10 O'Clock Live' star Jimmy Carr is ''petrified'' of taking part in live television broadcasts and finds it ''weird''

The 38-year-old funnyman admits he is wracked with nerves every time he steps out to front topical comedy show '10 O'Clock Live' with David Mitchell, Charlie Brooker and Lauren Laverne each Thursday.

He said: "I'm petrified of live TV. Normally shows are edited and you don't have to worry. But it's weird doing a live show on TV.

"If you're on tour and doing a gig in a room of 2,000 people it feels quite intimate, like you're chatting to friends. It isn't like it's being broadcast."

Jimmy has teamed up with fellow comics Frank Skinner, Al Murray and Stephen Fry for a Comic Relief campaign, which sees them go head-to-head in a competition to sell the most packets of their own custom flavours of Walkers crisps.

Whoever's flavour sells least well will have all their body hair waxed during the Comic Relief broadcast on BBC One and Jimmy - who has put his name to Chilli Con Carrne flavour - isn't confident he will escape the forfeit.

He told The Sun newspaper: "I don't think there's going to be a happy ending, do you? This is the first time I've ever done an ad. It's quite a fun thing to do but the 'acting' isn't exactly a stretch."

The '8 Out of 10 Cats' star thinks Comic Relief works so well in raising people's awareness of horrific poverty both in the UK and overseas because it finds a lighter way to tackle serious issues.

Jimmy said: "Joking about the starving or hungry is ideal. The reason Comic Relief works is because you're talking about things almost too horrific to look at. But humour is a really good way to deal with it.

"It gives people a lighter side. It's the reason so many comics turn up to raise money."